At one point Mrs. Bipthrottle, the librarian, passed really close to where Amanda was sitting, and to keep her work secret she purposely dropped the page on the floor, taking her time in picking it up so the librarian wouldn’t see it. Then Binnie Belasco walked into the library, but Amanda pretended not to see her and she walked right back out again.
And then it happened. She received a text. At first she ignored it, attempting to keep her concentration from wavering, but then she realized it might be important. What if they’d found Thrillkill! So she looked at her phone and just about died.
It was from Nick. He said, “Onion good guy. Tx!”
So Mr. Onion had taken the case. That meant he thought he could win. It also meant he thought Nick was a person he would like to represent. Good. She’d be done with him and he wouldn’t bother her anymore.
And then another text from Nick arrived. “Found something you’ll want to see.”
What was that supposed to mean? What could he possibly have that she’d be interested in? She ignored the text and went back to the page. And then another text arrived: “Please come see me.”
Amanda just about screamed. What was he trying to do, drive her crazy? Hadn’t he done enough to hurt her? Did he somehow know she’d found the page and was trying to distract her from it, or worse, steal it from her?
She pounded out a text: “Leave me alone!” but just as she was about to press Send another one arrived: “Might be able to find my dad.”
That was a message she couldn’t ignore. Find Blixus! Get David and Editta back? Throw the criminal back in prison where he belonged? She could put everything right, or just about everything anyway. There was still the issue of Thrillkill and the others, and Celerie Wiffle and Andalusia Sweetgum were still suing the school. But resolving the Blixus issue would fix just about everything, maybe, for all she knew, even the Bible as well.
She erased the text she’d written and wrote back “Tell me.”
“You must see,” he wrote back.
Darn him anyway. Was he just trying to lure her there for some nefarious purpose?
“Show me,” she texted.
The next thing she knew, an image had arrived. On it was an extremely detailed map entitled “Subterranean Britain.”
Amanda got so excited she practically fell out of her chair. If he was saying what she thought he was saying, this map could lead them to his father.
Amanda stuffed the page into her bag and tore out of there like a shot. Within twenty minutes she was at the boat. She didn’t even have to knock at the cabin door because Nick had seen her coming and was standing there waiting to greet her. He took her by the hand and pulled her over to the table where the map was spread open. But as soon as she looked at it she felt utterly defeated. The map was so extensive, with so many possibilities, that she had no idea what to do with it.
“Look at all these tunnels,” she moaned. “They’re endless.”
“I know,” he said. “It is intimidating.”
“Then why did you tell me about it?” she said, looking for some landmark, some clue that might help shortcut the process.
“Because,” he said, “I want to help.”
“It will take forever to search these,” she said. “I mean without dedicating every single cop in the country to the project, and even then it’s too much.”
“I’ve never known you to give up, Amanda,” he said.
That was true. She didn’t give up on anything and he knew it. He was like the old Nick, encouraging her like that.
Suddenly she felt a wave of love wash over her. She didn’t want to feel it, but there it was, and it swept her up completely.
“Simon says,” she started, and then caught herself. What was she doing? She was about to tell Nick Moriarty that Simon said he was her true love? What in the . . .
“Simon says what?” He was looking at her in such an earnest way.
She straightened herself up and said, as calmly as possible, “Simon sends his condolences.”
“About my mum?” he said. “That was nice of him.”
It had been the right thing to say. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Simon can be okay when he’s not being a jerk.”
“I know what you mean.”
He smiled. He had lovely teeth. Suddenly she had an image of him sitting in a dentist chair and got totally creeped out. She forced herself to remember what they’d been talking about, but he was laughing and it distracted her.
“What’s so funny?” she said.
“You and Binkle. What a concept.”
“You mean me and Simon together?” The thought was horrifying. Where had he got an idea like that anyway? She hoped he didn’t know about the kissing.
“Yes.” He was still laughing.
She blew a raspberry. “You couldn’t possibly think that.”
“No, I don’t,” he said more seriously. “You could never be with him.”
Then he got quiet. She knew exactly what he was thinking. The idea of her and Holmes wasn’t funny at all.
“Nick,” she said after a pause, “what will happen if you win your case?”
He’d obviously thought about the question a lot because he didn’t hesitate. “That depends on whether Thrillkill lets me in.”
She traced a line on the map. The paper crinkled ever so slightly. “And what if he doesn’t?”
“I've always been more or less alone. I'm used to it. I'll be fine.”
She couldn’t imagine how he’d live without family, friends, or a place to go. “But you need an education.”
“I’ll teach myself.”
She could see that. He was so smart he didn’t really need teachers. But still, what a sad life it would be. Suddenly she desperately wanted Legatum to let him in, even if that meant she had to be around him all the time. Maybe they could fix him. The real teachers, that is. Not the stupid new ones.
“Look,” he said, “I want to get in, and I’m willing to do whatever they ask of me, but I’m not going to beg. You know that’s not me. It has to be because I have something to offer, not because I’m some charity case. And I do have a lot to offer, whether or not I get anything in return. And I’m prepared to give it. I—”
“Hey, would you look at this? Oh, sorry to interrupt. But I think I’ve found something.” She pointed to a section of the map outside Penrith.
He moved her hand over and peered at the paper. “What is it?”
“See anything?” she said unhappily.
“A lot of lines. What have you found?”
“The Neolithic tunnels where you were hiding out aren’t on the map.”
“Let me see that.” He narrowed his eyes and took a good long look. “You’re right! And that means—”
“The map is incomplete! There are all kinds of places he could hide.” She kicked the table leg in frustration. “We’ll never find him.”
Nick studied the map for the longest time. Then he looked up at her and said, “I’ve got a better idea.”
She held her breath. Maybe he did know something after all. “What?”
“I don’t know how or when, but we’ll get him to come to us.”
When Amanda finally made it back to Legatum it was dinnertime. She was starving and the dining room would only be open for another few minutes, so she sped down the hall as fast as she could. Unfortunately she ran smack into her mother.
“Come with me,” Lila said, grabbing her by the hand.
“I have to get dinner,” said Amanda, pulling away.
“This is more important. Come to my office.”
“But Mom—”
“Nonsense. You can have a power bar. I’ve got some in there. I want to talk to you.”
Uh oh. Could Lila have figured out that Nick was nearby? Even worse, could she have seen Amanda visit him?
“What’s this about?” said Amanda.
“Legatum,” said Lila curtly.
Oh well, that was all right. She obviously knew nothing
about Nick or she would have screamed bloody murder right there in the hall.
Lila clack, clack, clacked down the hall to her office, pulled Amanda in, and slammed the door. She sat right down on the desk and said, “This school is a mess.”
This was so not what Amanda had been expecting that she had nothing to say.
“Is this the way Headmaster Thrillkill was running it?” Lila demanded.
“Um, what do you mean by this?” said Amanda.
“The curriculum is all wrong, the teachers are unschooled, and the buildings are falling apart. I don’t know how anyone learns anything around here. Not to mention that matron, Mrs. Scarper? She doesn’t dress in a professional manner.”
Amanda had never seen anything wrong with Mrs. Scarper. She was a bit dowdy, but other than that she looked fine.
“I don’t see—”
“Now don’t argue with me, Amanda. I am seriously thinking of taking you out of Legatum.”
What? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t! Sure, at one time Amanda hadn’t wanted to be here, but everything was different now. She couldn’t imagine her life any other way. Then she got an idea.
“If you don’t like it here, why are you teaching?” Maybe she could use logic to get her mother to resign.
“Amanda, you silly goose. To fix things. You know that.”
Nuts. Oh well, she’d given it a try.
“Please, don’t be so hard on everyone. Things have happened. The earthquake—”
“The earthquake was months ago. No, I’m not at all sure this is the place for you. Perhaps when I’ve straightened it out . . .”
She had to be kidding. She was going to take Amanda out of school, send her who knew where, single-handedly “fix” the place, and bring her back? Suddenly Amanda missed her father like crazy. He never would have gone along with such a silly scheme. She wondered how he was doing in Tibet. She hadn’t spoken to him for the longest time. And then she realized what this really meant. As long as her mother was there, Nick would never, ever get in.
9
Peacocks, Pages, and Poop
Amanda hadn’t made much of a start on the page but she knew she was already stuck. She wasn’t going to make any more progress on the code without Holmes’s help, and she still didn’t want to ask him. She was so annoyed with herself that she thought maybe her mother was right. Maybe she should leave the school. What a lousy detective she was.
What was so special about this Bible anyway? Had it really affected the day-to-day functioning of the school? She’d never seen any evidence of that. Was it absolutely essential for capturing criminals? She’d never seen any proof of that either. Then what was the big deal? What was so important about it that it had driven half the teachers all the way to Scotland, caused David to crack, and made his roommates turn to the dark side?
She absently looked out the library window. It was a beautiful fall day. The light had a golden cast to it, something you didn’t see often in Britain. At this time of year back in L.A., the light would shimmer in the Santa Ana winds. But here things were so much more muted. This light was a gift.
She got up to get a better view. The trees were fiery red, apple yellow, pumpkin orange. Late fall flowers were uncharacteristically ablaze, purple, red, blue . . . blue? Since when were flowers blue? Wait a minute. The flowers were moving. She craned her neck so she could see and—those were no flowers. There were three peacocks out there, pecking and pacing and fidgeting and beaking each other. What in the world?
Amanda had seen peacocks in the area before, but never on the school grounds, and never these blue ones. Were these the birds that had followed her back from town? What was she, some kind of bird pied piper all of a sudden? Did she smell weird or something, was that what was attracting them? Where had she been, what had she touched?
OMG, it was the page! The birds wanted the page and she had it. No, it couldn’t be. It was just a stupid piece of paper. Why would they care?
The idea that the peacocks were after the page was crazy, but since nothing else seemed to be working for her, why not give it a test? She grabbed the page, flew out of the library, and made her way outside.
She was just noticing how much the birds had pooped all over the Edgar Allan Poe statue when the they raged at her and just about knocked her down. One flew from one side, another from the other, and the third from above. She screamed and made for the door around the corner from the Logic classroom, birds screeching and squawking all the way.
This commotion caught the attention of Professor Mukherjee, who had been out for a constitutional. He made a beeline for Amanda, grabbed her by the hand, and rushed her inside, where the two of them stood doubled over and breathless, and to their dismay, full of peacock poop.
“Miss Lester,” panted the legal issues professor, “are you all right?”
“I’m all smelly!” she wailed.
“Are you injured?”
She looked down at her body, then felt her back and head. “I don’t think so.”
“Nor am I. Well, that was quite an experience, wasn’t it?” He brushed off his Savile Row suit and attempted to put his shock of dark hair back in order. “I’ve never seen such birds. You didn’t try to feed them, did you?”
“No, sir. It’s not good to feed wild animals.”
“Certainly not. Perhaps it’s mating season then?”
Amanda did not like the idea that the peacocks might be interested in mating with her, and anyway, fall wasn’t mating season. She did, however, think that she had just seen evidence that her theory was correct: the peacocks were mad for the Bible page.
What was it about that thing? Obviously the peacocks couldn’t read, and even if they could they couldn’t decipher the code. Was there some kind of special peacock food on the page? She hadn’t noticed anything. Could it be invisible? A scent of some kind? Crazy peacock pheromones?
Whatever it was she had to find out. And this was something she could do. She could take the page to the lab and run tests on it. Hurray! She had a lead.
“Thank you for your help,” she said to Professor Mukherjee.
“Yes, well, uh,” said the teacher. “You’d better get cleaned up. We’re tracking the, uh, er, ah, all over the hall.”
So they were, so Amanda ran up to her room, pulled off everything she was wearing and threw it all under her bed, took a one-minute shower, redressed, and ran, with the page, to the nearest lab.
When she got there, she found Clive hard at work on something or other. She contemplated finding another lab, but before she could turn around he said, “Amanda, just the person I want to see.” She could hardly ignore that, so she walked over to the lab bench where he was messing around and said, “Hey.”
“I was just . . .” said Clive. “Say, you’ve got something in your hair.”
Uh oh. Had she missed a place? She reached up and felt around and sure enough, there was poop in her hair.
“Oh nuts,” she said.
“What is that anyway?” said Clive.
This was embarrassing. More than that, she did not want Clive to find out about the peacocks or the page.
“Um, dunno. I’m sure it’s nothing.” She went to look for a paper towel or a tissue to wipe off her hand.
“No, it’s not nothing. Here, let me see that.” He made her bend down while he examined her head. “Amanda, this is poop!”
“No!”
“Yes. And there’s an awful lot of it. Where have you been?”
“Nowhere.”
Clive pushed her back and looked into her eyes. “Spill.”
He knew. Maybe not everything, but he knew something was up. Nuts. Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she told him, as long as he swore to keep everything secret. And he would. Clive was not a gossip.
Amanda sighed. “I’ve got something to tell you.”
No expression. “Okay.”
She took a deep breath. “I found a page from The Detective’s Bible.”
Clive didn
’t move—not a muscle in his face or body. “I know.”
This was not the reaction she was expecting. “What do you mean you know?”
“Simon told me.” Now he smiled. “I can’t wait to see it. That’s what I was going to ask you about.”
Slap to head! Of course. She’d told Simon and Ivy already. How could she have forgotten? Maybe that collision had affected her brain after all.
“Oh, right.” Luckily he didn’t seem offended that she hadn’t told him as well. “Simon doesn’t know everything though.”
“What do you mean?” said Clive.
She moved close and whispered. “There’s something weird about the page.”
He whispered back. “Does this have anything to do with poop?”
“Actually, it does,” she said in a normal tone of voice.
Clive chuckled. “I thought so.”
Now how would he have known that? “Excuse me?”
“I can put two and two together.” Of course he could.
“Just out of curiosity,” she said, “do you have a theory about this page and the poop?”
“Nope. I just know they’re related somehow.”
Well, that was something anyway. She’d begun to think he could read her mind.
“Okay, here’s the thing, and I’d appreciate it if you would not tell anyone just yet.”
Clive made a zipping motion over his mouth. Amanda told him everything that had happened since she had found the page, including the way the peacocks attacked her and how Professor Mukherjee had spirited her to safety. She even told him that she had tried and failed to crack the code. There was no point in holding back, even if it was embarrassing. Anyway, so what? She was used to being embarrassed.
Suddenly Binnie walked into the lab. When she saw Amanda and Clive in animated discussion, she tactfully waited near the door. Then she caught Amanda’s eye and the two friends shut up as fast as a criminal in an interrogation room.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt,” said Binnie. “I just wanted to ask Clive about this rock.” She produced an ordinary-looking stone from her bag and held it practically under his nose.
Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set Page 115
